Lunaville:I have a kid trying to con me into allowing this game on the grounds that it "teaches history." Are you kidding me? We've got three books shelves filled with books. There's a section of history books, most targeted specifically at juvenile readers, that is about a yard long. The kids want to learn history; fine we're going back to enforcing our increasingly ignored rules limiting technology usage so they have time to read a book.

I think I'll take my own advice now. I've been spending way too much time on this site. I love reading all the different view points, but time just slips away.

It's historical fiction. I actually learned a lot about the Borgia family and the early corrupt popes while playing AC: Brotherhood, which was neat. But you could learn all that from a book just as easily.

Magorn:ut that ALL the Founding Fathers, more or less were techincially "Templars" because they were all Freemasons? And that it may well have been that Freemason connection that helped us Win the war? European officers who were critical to training the Continental Army into a legit fighting force, such as Lafayette and Von Stueben were all freemasons and joined the Revolution after Washington and other put out a direct appeal for assistance to the masonic lodges in Europe (and that the Revolution was seen by Freemasons as a sort of attempt to create a new nation founded on Masonic ideals of liberty and

Strangely enough, Masonry is just about the only conspiracy theory that AC doesn't opt to include in its mythos as part of the grand Assassin vs Templar war. They're brought up and dismissed directly in AC3 as the most unsecret secret society ever and just a bunch of guys in a club.

Should we point out that ALL the Founding Fathers, more or less were techincially "Templars" because they were all Freemasons? And that it may well have been that Freemason connection that helped us Win the war? European officers who were critical to training the Continental Army into a legit fighting force, such as Lafayette and Von Stueben were all freemasons and joined the Revolution after Washington and other put out a direct appeal for assistance to the masonic lodges in Europe (and that the Revolution was seen by Freemasons as a sort of attempt to create a new nation founded on Masonic ideals of liberty and equality?)

If Desmond's bloodline once crossed over to become a Templar, why? How? Did the "Assassin" legacy sort of fade out after Ezio retired? Or was he groomed for the Templar order by random chance? How did a tribe of Native Americans come into possession of an Apple of Eden, and why didn't the Templar order recognize that they A) needed it to access the first civ cave or B) make any efforts to recover the one possessed by Conner's tribe? I guess if they didn't know anything about it, that's fine, but the tribe's interactions with the Templar's even before Conner's birth makes it seem likely that they knew the tribe either had knowledge of the apple or possessed it outright. Unless it was just chance that a Templar aligned himself with this tribe.

It would also appear that the Assassin Order diminished greatly after the retirement of Ezio. I find it hard to believe that the only Assassin's in that conflict were you, Davenport, and your three apprentices. There may have been many people helping the Assassin's, but they didn't operate with the order on the same level as Sulieman or Davinci or the Medici did in previous games. The Assassins you do see are also so far removed from the quality of the old Assassin order that I honestly found them to be "unworthy" of the Assassin title. They weren't trained in the same fashion, they didn't possess hidden blades, you never see any kind of ceremony. It just seemed like they were Assassins by name only. I don't know, maybe that was the idea, considering the Assassin order is now practically a series of splinter cells with low numbers, but it they just seemed so...weak in AC3. At any rate, I enjoyed the hell out of the game and I can't wait to see where they go with the franchise. After the ship levels, I'd really love to see Ubisoft make a pirate game.

In the defense of the G&M article (only somewhat because it's pretty stupid overall) they nailed the problem in that most of the promotional material is utterly farking retarded. In the end it's more to do with the fact the protagonist is an Indian and it's pretty unlikely that an Indian would be fighting against the Brits in 1763. This article just cherry picks a few lines out of context.

But what do I care, I didn't even feel like finishing AC1 and haven't bothered trying the rest.

Globe writer is probably also from Ontario, where most of their kids are stupid as shiat anyway.

Doogles4221:Also: SPOILERS... SPOILERS So in the end, Desmond chose to save everyone by releasing a being of great power to rule over humanity. Isn't that exactly what the Templars always wanted, and the exact opposite of everything the Assassin's stand for.

I've given that thought, but basically they wanted control before and after. They would have used the Apple of Eden for this and their other nefarious purposes. Yeah, the ending kind of took a steep decline and why the hell does a being without a body want to control the world? I got really lost there. Ending really did blow.

AC 3 really seems like four different well-done half games (Sailing; homestead missions; fetch quests; Main story) all put together, and not that well. I had no problem beating the story with never touching the Underground and hardly touching the homestead. Some of the individual sequences were extremly well done, and looked great, but it needed something else to be a truly great game.

Also: SPOILERS... SPOILERS So in the end, Desmond chose to save everyone by releasing a being of great power to rule over humanity. Isn't that exactly what the Templars always wanted, and the exact opposite of everything the Assassin's stand for.

I have a kid trying to con me into allowing this game on the grounds that it "teaches history." Are you kidding me? We've got three books shelves filled with books. There's a section of history books, most targeted specifically at juvenile readers, that is about a yard long. The kids want to learn history; fine we're going back to enforcing our increasingly ignored rules limiting technology usage so they have time to read a book.

I think I'll take my own advice now. I've been spending way too much time on this site. I love reading all the different view points, but time just slips away.

Slaxl:However the best thing about the game was the naval warfare side of it. I could sit on the ship having a fight all day. If they could just take that part of the game, move it back 100 years and add hundreds of Caribbean ports, and make it like Sid Meier's Pirates, but without the old age onset, and the more cartoony elements, and mission to find lost relatives, and instead make a very detailed and more realistic piratey game then I'd buy it all over again.

HalEmmerich:I definitely agree with where you're coming from, but I think they sidestep it with Conner's falling out with the Patriots towards the end. I think threatening to kill Washington for messing with his people didn't do much for his relationship with all of those guys. They were using him and his desire to protect his people to do their dirty work in service to their cause while screwing him over behind his back, and then he fades into the background following the end of the war. Plus he was an Indian, so yeah.

And he didn't really know that many of the founding fathers. Adams, Washington and Lafayette mostly.

Ben Franklin as well, at least in my game he knew him. But yeah, I saw that too but it never bothered me at all that he knew and worked with these people.

yves0010:Could easily argue that Conner was there because he was invited or serving as a body guard while at the signing.

Definitely, I think one of the missions you protect GW during an assassination attempt. It's just after all of the FF that know you in the game, sharing a horse with Paul Revere, exploring Boston with Sam Adams I felt he was way to directly in the spot light. I always thought the purpose of the game was to make a conspiracy story and have someone who could have acted on the fringes of history for unresolved historical deaths. If this guy did any two of these things he would have a 5 story tall monument.

Ok, which one of you farkers wrote this in the original artistic comments:

"I agree with this editorial. Video games have a long history of distorting history.

The Mario Brothers franchise: A completely inaccurate portrayal of the experience of Italian immigrants to North America.

Donkey Kong: A pathetic attempt to explain the plight of apes in central Africa and elsewhere.

The Grand Theft Auto series: Not an accurate depiction of the criminal lifestyle, or corruption in the police force, or the effects of throwing a pipebomb at a group of Hare Krishna while riding a dirt bike on a city sidewalk.

thecpt:Finished the game last week, but I have mixed feelings about it. First off, relevant to the article they tried to plug a lot of real history in it with stuff such as an actual play from the 1700s being acted out line by line in the background during the first mission. Farking awesome. Lay outs of cities and architecture was also layed out as best they could while they tried to make it entertaining. Buildings, people, land marks all had readable histories. The intent of immersion was wonderfully pulled off, including the wilderness that had intuitive and natural looking tree paths. It was also pretty fair on who to blast. My favorite line is when Connor calls out Sam Adams on owning slaves. Later in the game he threatens Washington, and Paul Revere's ride is hilarious. I read a review by someone in England where they state they were never once offended and they wanted to know how Americans felt about those portrayals. After all the founding fathers are deified over here. The killing people game play has been really well defined and is easy to pick up, and easy to master.

What I didn't like:Most reviews I read online were pretty good. Any rando joe review that was negative seemed to not give credit to all that I listed previously, and how the game is absolutely beautiful. Legitimate complaints (that i shared sentiment with) were that the stories were hardly linked, Connor's reason to exist and Desmond's reason to relive his memories are incredibly weak, Connor never matured and never really "grew" as a character (unlike Ezio), and the free running is still glitchy (might be the PS3 version though).

Farking great game, but you really only have 4 different areas to explore unlike previous games that had multiple cities that had very different architecture, design, and purpose.

/I've been wanting to talk with anyone about it since I finished it

I think Connor's reason to exist and Desmond's reason to relive his memories are clear, and important. Connor had the key to the precursor temple, they had to relive his memories to find what he did with it. I agree that he never really 'grew' as a character though. I would count the tree running against it, though, since you can see from a mile away the unnatural looking branches that solely exist to allow you to run through the trees. I had hoped that all trees had branches you could grab.

Occasionally I had important targets spawn in inaccessible places, like in the middle of a tree, which was frustrating. There seemed to be more bugs than previous ones.

However the best thing about the game was the naval warfare side of it. I could sit on the ship having a fight all day. If they could just take that part of the game, move it back 100 years and add hundreds of Caribbean ports, and make it like Sid Meier's Pirates, but without the old age onset, and the more cartoony elements, and mission to find lost relatives, and instead make a very detailed and more realistic piratey game then I'd buy it all over again.

Oh, and I forgot my complaint that Connor experiences waaaay too much history first hand. SITTING IN AT THE SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE? Rly? You never even get to play in Philly. Founding fathers know him by name and chat with him? C'mon! The assassins are supposed to be on the fringes of history while directly effecting it, not hoisting the flag at Iwo Jima. Why is Valley Forge in the Northwest!?

That could really just be my preference in what I expect out of the series though

Finished the game last week, but I have mixed feelings about it. First off, relevant to the article they tried to plug a lot of real history in it with stuff such as an actual play from the 1700s being acted out line by line in the background during the first mission. Farking awesome. Lay outs of cities and architecture was also layed out as best they could while they tried to make it entertaining. Buildings, people, land marks all had readable histories. The intent of immersion was wonderfully pulled off, including the wilderness that had intuitive and natural looking tree paths. It was also pretty fair on who to blast. My favorite line is when Connor calls out Sam Adams on owning slaves. Later in the game he threatens Washington, and Paul Revere's ride is hilarious. I read a review by someone in England where they state they were never once offended and they wanted to know how Americans felt about those portrayals. After all the founding fathers are deified over here. The killing people game play has been really well defined and is easy to pick up, and easy to master.

What I didn't like:Most reviews I read online were pretty good. Any rando joe review that was negative seemed to not give credit to all that I listed previously, and how the game is absolutely beautiful. Legitimate complaints (that i shared sentiment with) were that the stories were hardly linked, Connor's reason to exist and Desmond's reason to relive his memories are incredibly weak, Connor never matured and never really "grew" as a character (unlike Ezio), and the free running is still glitchy (might be the PS3 version though).

Farking great game, but you really only have 4 different areas to explore unlike previous games that had multiple cities that had very different architecture, design, and purpose.